Conspiracies of the Ruling Class: How to Break Their Grip Forever - Softcover

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Lawrence B. Lindsey’s career has spanned government, business, and academia. He served under three presidents: Ronald Reagan, as senior staff economist for tax policy at the Council of Economic Advisors; George H.W. Bush, as Special Assistant for Domestic Economic Policy; and George W. Bush, as Director of the National Economic Council. He was a professor at Harvard from 1985 to 1989, governor of the Federal Reserve from 1991 to 1997, managing director of the consulting group Economic Strategies from 1997 to 2001, and has been CEO of The Lindsey Group, a global consulting firm, since 2003. He is the author of Conspiracies of the Ruling Class.

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Conspiracies of the Ruling Class

CHAPTER 1

A History of Ruling in the Absence of Liberty

For most of human history, mankind has lived under the command of the Ruling Class. Sometimes those in charge did a good job, sometimes not, but the ever-present temptation for those with power to seek even more has always been there. As a result, most people who have ever lived have had very little control of even the most rudimentary aspects of their lives. Their occupations have been determined largely by what their parents did. Their marriages have either been arranged, or their choice in partners has been limited severely by their unchangeable social standing. Their day-to-day activities have not been a matter of choice but have instead been driven by necessity, custom, and the dictates of their overlords. More than 90 percent of the roughly hundred billion people who have ever been born1 have lived out their lives in fear: fear of dying from starvation, illness, accident, war, or as helpless victims of a totalitarian ruler. Even today, only about a third of the world’s population live in democratic countries, and, for most of these, the freedoms they experience are only a heavily watered-down version of what many take for granted in America.

History provides a few short-lived examples where mankind has experimented with individual freedom. More commonly, there has been a ruler or a ruling class that seizes power by offering citizens a better life, through free food, health care, or other services their government can supply, or a solution to real or imagined problems of the moment. These problems usually are manufactured issues involving either a vague, potential threat that can’t really be detailed and solved easily (for example, “The crops may fail,” or global warming), or issues of conflict with other groups (such as tribalism or racism). The reason the ruler needs to manufacture these problems is that the society needs to be focused only on what the ruler wants and not distracted by their lack of freedoms or individuality. This keeps the “great unwashed masses” in line, peaceful, and accepting of the current ruling class. These rulers’ ascension depends ultimately on the assumed superiority of the ruling class to make all the rules the people must follow and on their subjects’ acceptance of a society without freedoms.

This book is about a very real battle that will result in either the continuance of the United States as a global beacon of freedom and individual liberty for our children or the end of the American experiment that began almost 250 years ago. To begin, we look back to consider how civilization’s early ruling classes rose to a position of prominence, and how they were able to maintain this standing, ruling for their own benefit at the expense of their people.

The Ruler Knows Best (or At Least He Thinks So)

Historically, giving up control of one’s life to an all-powerful ruler began as a matter of necessity. Life was dangerous. Starvation was a constant threat. Defeat, death, and capture by another tribe or group were always possibilities. Humans learned early on that they had to stick together to survive. When the tribe went hunting large game, their success was based on teamwork. There might have been some discussion, but ultimately one person called the shots, and the others followed. Those who didn’t fall in line risked endangering the entire group. This logic continued when one group came into contact with another: battles were fought—and won—with teamwork under the direction of a few. So, in terms of the effective use of force by the tribe—for food or for battle—it became useful for a few to emerge who gave orders to others.

With the agricultural revolution, the survival of the entire tribe became a matter of planting crops at the right time and hoping that the weather cooperated. “Specialists” emerged who improved the odds of success through early scientific advances, like tracking the movement of the moon and stars. Evidence suggests that large megalithic structures such as Stonehenge functioned to enable these enhanced powers of observation. Though their actual scientific knowledge was likely very basic by today’s standards, these specialists were elevated within society because of their importance to the tribe’s well-being and often became the religious leaders of the community. After all, no one knew why the seasons happened, just that they did, year after year, and it was left to the specialists, who could specify more accurately when spring would begin, to come up with an explanation.

Useful fictions such as “Who are we to question the will of the gods?” fit the need of the emerging Ruling Class very well. They could say that they possessed a specialized “skill set” not accessible to the common man, and thus held an exclusive position as the gods’ mouthpiece to the people. This made them absolutely critical to the group’s survival, at least in the narrative they promoted. Conveniently, the Ruling Class continued to refine their marketing message to the masses. If a spring brought unseasonably cold weather and lower crop yields, the story was always some variation of “You have angered the gods because . . .” Or even better, “You can appease the gods again by . . .” But never “I’ve made a mistake.”

Now, pretend you’re a member of the community that relies on this specialist to determine when to plant. He’s been right most of the time. If you go against his dictates, you risk ruining the crop and starving to death. So, for lack of other options, you follow this specialist and his policies, because the downside is so catastrophic. Coincidence becomes causation, and over time, you and your family grow even more attentive to what the specialist says the gods want in the future, to the point that you’re hanging on his every word. In Mesoamerica and many other early cultures, ritual human sacrifice was a regular practice mandated by high priests, the specialists of that time, to appease the gods society worshipped. Though extreme acts like this were barbaric, they were deemed necessary in order for society to continue, and thus became a way of life.

So, early in human history, individuals relinquished significant control of their lives as a matter of survival to the Ruling Class, who were cunning enough to take advantage of their helplessness. The early rulers flourished not because they were exceptionally knowledgeable or skilled but because, even when outnumbered, they were able to rule with elaborately crafted narratives that explained why they deserved a position of such prominence. Of course, they were crafty and capable, and did contribute to the refinement of early society, but they were focused mostly on advancing their own agenda of seizing and wielding power. This has always been the strategy of the Ruling Class, whether as the chief of a small tribe or an emperor ruling millions of people.

Common to all of these rulers are the three basic tenants of the Ruling Class. First, most people are incapable of managing their own lives. Second, only a government can succeed in maintaining order in society. Finally, the members of the Ruling Class possess an innate superiority that makes them worthy of their position and the power they hold over everyone else.

As society became more complex, the real leadership the ruler showed on the hunt or in battle was no longer crucial. So his narrative evolved as to why individual liberty had to be sacrificed. Opposition to...